DEAR News Of The Area,

THE upcoming Federal election campaign has (unofficially) begun and we can expect much verbiage over the next few months with slogans repeated ad nauseam.

Slogans are used to cement in voters minds a simple expression of a complex problem that can be easily repeated and passed on.

This is not necessarily a bad thing as the process of Government is complex business and difficult to convey, particularly to people who do not want to know about trade-offs, compromise, and nuance.

Slogans are a form of predigested thinking and can be useful as a call to action.

“Bread not bombs”, “Stop the Boats”, “Make love, not war”, “If you don’t know, vote no”, are all examples that put forward a simple idea to encapsulate a complex issue.

Rarely do they stand up to intelligent scrutiny but that does not necessarily mean that they are not effective.

It just means that one must question slogans and be aware of their inherently dishonest nature.

Another example of predigested thinking is the word “woke”.

This has such a broad and indiscriminate usage by some people that it can be difficult to pin down. Respect and empathy for first nations people is woke.

Empathy for gay or trans-gender people is woke.

Concern for the environment is woke.

Its usage has taken on the meaning that any concern for others, any respect for others, any feeling of kindness is now “woke” and, as such, is a bad thing.

Everything I hate is woke!

“Woke” seems to have, partially, replaced the previous usage of the predigested thinking slogan “politically correct” which is a similarly vague and ephemeral concept that is a reaction to changes in social attitudes that the user is resistant to.

When someone starts a sentence with “I know it’s not politically correct but…” one can be pretty sure that the next thing to come out of their mouth will be racist or sexist or some other expression of contempt for some marginalised group of people.

A final example of predigested thinking is the slogan “virtue signalling”.

This extends the contempt for the values of kindness, respect, and empathy to label any action in support of these values to be a selfish, dishonest act by the person involved who, by implication, does not really hold these values but is only acting to score some sort of virtue points in the view of other similarly minded people.

Again, virtuous values are made out to be a bad thing.

It is useful to understand slogans and to dig a little deeper into what they really mean if one is to avoid becoming a victim of predigested thinking. I mean, if you were to eat predigested food what would you really be eating?

In mind, and in body, you are what you eat.

Or is that another example of predigested thinking?

Peter SOBEY,
Valla.